London zoo monkey-keeper and meerkat-keeper 'fought over llama-keeper'

Caroline Westlake, counting meerkats at London zoo, where she had worked for four years. Photograph: Daily Mail/Rex Shutterstock

A London zoo love triangle between keepers of meerkats, monkeys and llamas led to bloody fight at a Christmas party, a court has heard.

Caroline Westlake, who worked in the meerkat enclosure, was convicted on Friday of assault by beating after glassing her colleague, Kate Sanders, in the face.

Sanders, who cared for the attraction’s monkeys, and Westlake came to blows in the zoo’s Prince Albert Suite after a row over llama-keeper Adam Davies, who dated Sanders for five years but after they split started a relationship with Westlake.

Kate Sanders, who worked with monkeys, told the court of her shock when blood came pouring out of her mouth during the fight. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Sanders saw the couple together for the first time at the Christmas party on 8 December and made a derisory comment about Westlake’s appearance. Her comments sparked an argument that ended with Sanders being struck in the face with a wine glass, for which she required stitches.

Westlake, from Banstead in Surrey, denied one count of assault by beating but was found guilty at Westminster magistrates court.

The 30-year-old, who worked at the zoo for four and a half years, was sacked from her job looking after the meerkats and the rainforest zone. Sanders, from north London, was given a final warning and banned from Zoological Society of London events for two years as a result of the fight.

Adam Davies, pictured right with a llama, dated Sanders for five years but started a relationship with Westlake after they split, the court heard. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Sanders earlier told the court of her shock when blood came pouring out of her mouth during the fight. “Things were being said on both sides that shouldn’t have been said,” she said. “I told her I’d seen a text she sent him asking him out for a drink while we were still dating and the next thing I know I was hit in the face with something very hard.

“I was hit on the left cheek and from the feeling it was a glass and had come from a low position. I was extremely shocked when it hit me. I tried to protect myself by reaching out my right hand and pushing her against the nearest thing to me, which was some railings.”

Defence solicitor Suzanne Kelly told Sanders it was she who instigated the fight with Westlake by punching her in the face, lunging at her and pushing her over nearby railings, which she denied.

Westlake is to be sentenced on 14 October.